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So Bernie’s conceded and is now on Team Hillary. Most of his supporters got there first because they don’t hate Clinton as much as some uber-partisans want them to, not to mention they are smart people who know “President Trump” would make us long for the good old days of Bush/Cheney. Bernie is there, too; he ran a great race, came in second, and is now doing what he has to do as a responsible, conscientious politician.

But just because he and most of his supporters are now with her doesn’t mean everyone has to be. That’s not how democracy works. Just because “we” believe we are right does not mean we are. In politics, what is right or wrong is a matter of what we decide as a polity. This is why we have elections.

In this election, supporting Clinton for president is a “wrong” for a lot of people. Apart from my point that they have every right to hold that position, I’d like to make two other points I think are important.

One, there was always a large portion of Sanders’ base that was never going to vote for Hillary Clinton. Never. Many Democrats and Dem-voting independents joined him with great passion but were always open, to varying degrees, to voting for the winner of the primary. But a lot of those who were part of the campaign were not Democrats and never will be.

That’s why when the Clinton-v-Trump polls are expanded to include third-party candidates, she loses about 5% of her lead. This has nothing to do with Hillary Clinton. This happens every cycle: a small chunk of voters go for the Greens, the Libertarians, etc. What was unusual this time is that so many of those...

Think about that. Dallas cops had one of the shooting suspects cornered, and, when he did not surrender, they sent in a robot armed with a bomb. And they blew the man up.

This isn’t science fiction or a bad Robocop movie. This is real-life in Dallas, Texas, a state with no qualms about executing mentally incapacitated people, the state where Gov Rick Perry was proud of his record of executing criminals. Now their MO becomes: Uncooperative suspect? And he’s not white? Send in the robot and blow his ass up.

Executing cops, as was done in Dallas last night, may be understandable – and I’m only surprised it’s been this long for it to happen, I’m sorry to say – but it’s no more excusable than any other murder. And I understand that cops get especially angry when their own are killed; that’s human nature, and it’s exacerbated when a tribe, like a police force, feels itself under what they consider unfair scrutiny.

But at some point, outside the emotion and drama of protests and videos of innocent black men being slaughtered by racist cops, a decision was made by the Dallas police department to prepare to use robots to blow up human beings. I want to know: Who signed off on this? Did the Mayor give the okay to prepare to use robots to blow up dangerous suspects? Did the DA?

Who argued that police lives matter so much that a suspect – not an active shooter putting innocent lives in danger, but a suspect cornered and incapable of attacking the public any further – should be blown up, like a piece of luggage left suspiciously on the sidewalk?

Yes, California has nearly 2.5M votes left to count, almost all of them vote-by-mail. (County elections departments there should contact Multnomah County to learn how to do this right.) If you compare the county-by-county outstanding ballots to the current results, you’ll come to this conclusion: Clinton still wins the state, and handily.

Here’s a comparison of the counties with the most outstanding ballots to count:

county

outstanding

HRC margin

Alameda

151,853

+8

Contra Costa

75,000

+17

Fresno

38,000

+19

Kern

53,856

+17

Los Angeles

556,319

+16

Orange

206,285

+10

Riverside

128,415

+20

Sacramento

107,291

+16

San Bernardino

56,049

+14

San Diego

285,000

+8

San Francisco

54,000

+11

San Joaquin

49,608

+21

San Mateo

62,687

+23

Santa Barbara

20,947

-0.2

Santa Clara

87,900

+20

Santa Cruz

37,500

-11

Sonoma

43,324

+2

Stanislaus

39,400

+8

Ventura

38,696

+7

Every one of these counties but two, she won; most by dominant margins. These are not numbers that lend themselves to a half-million vote swing. Sanders would have to win the oustanding ballots by a million, or 70% of the remaining votes. And that’s just to tie.

The current numbers, taken in conjunction with pre-primary polling and exit polls, tells us it ain’t gonna happen.

This is not the kind of outcome that will cause Sen Jeff Merkley to return to the fold, cause a panic of super-delegates, or persuade committed delegates to renege their commitment to the voters. Sanders is not going to win California on these outstanding ballots. He knows it, which is why he’s entering end-of-campaign mode.

Ten years ago, no one was paying attention to lead in drinking fountains. When the fountains at Corvallis High School were turned off due to safety concerns, the implications of that slid by. After all, Corvallis voters had approved the construction of a new high school, so the kids were getting out of that building anyway.

But now, ten years down the road, those of us with kids who went to the old CHS – and I had two – have no idea what our kids were exposed to. We can also wonder about the old Highland Middle School, demolished and replaced by Linus Pauling MS. Or all the other schools in Corvallis, most of which needed extensive fixing.

What happened to our kids during those years at those schools? I don't even know if the water got tested back then. I see what's going on in Portland, and I see testing (albeit late), accountability (way too late), and I see that parents at least have some knowledge of what their kids might have been exposed to.

All I have, and the thousands of Corvallis parents in the years before these recent upgrades, are questions. And the hope that my kids were not poisoned by their school drinking fountains. But I do not know.

Oregon’s primary election is in the rear view mirror, so let’s look at the role money played in the Portland mayoral campaign. Or, in some cases, the role a lack of money played.

Bailey: The high road?

Jules Bailey made a pledge at the beginning of his campaign to cap contributions at $250 and to take no PAC money. Of course, he was counting on support from groups like OLCV and the police union to give time and energy that he would not have to count as money. Bailey may have felt this was an ethical stand, but it didn’t do his campaign any good, especially considering he started several months after Ted Wheeler, who put no such limit on his contributions.

The question arises, given that he raised $160,000 (and ended $15,000 in the red) compared to Wheeler’s $634,000 (and that was just this year): was this a mistake? Did he regret the choice? No doubt Wheeler’s huge advantage in cash made Bailey’s task much more difficult, undermining all the things necessary to win an election.

Did he regret the choice? I don’t know, but here’s what he Tweeted when Chloe Eudaly asked Steve Novick to limit contributions in their City Council run-off:

Ted Wheeler was not shy about fundraising, and his campaign kicked major ass: $633,646 – in 2016 alone. In 2015, he raised over $324,000. That’s almost $1 million for this campaign. And it worked. He blew away all competition, winning handily (not easily, however: he, his team, and his volunteers worked like hell). He was able to buy all...

Being a woman in politics is a tough gig. No matter what side of the political divide, what office you’re seeking, what your background, you’re going to get hammered in ways men never have to worry about (cf: Hillary Clinton). Sexism in politics is rampant, disgusting, and destructive.

So is ageism. And we’re seeing that in play in the 2016 Portland mayoral primary.

The leading woman candidate is Sarah Iannarone. Her bio is a strong one: single-mom, started her own business, a leader in a program at PSU that allows her a wide range of international contacts, relentless volunteer, full-time bicyclist. This is a background that makes for a good politician, especially in Portland. Varied, full of struggle, full of opportunities taken.

As a result, even though few Portland voters know of her and she has no chance of becoming Portland’s next mayor, she’s earned a lot of respect and support. She says a lot of things progressive leaders need to say, and she says them with the conviction and detail that lets you know this comes from a strong combination of heart and brains. Many progressive activists in Portland are supporting her, especially younger ones and those with a dislike for the political establishment (and rich white men).

Fortunately for Iannarone, she’s young enough and not-rich enough that these younger activists are willing to give her a fair chance. Four years ago, the same people had a woman candidate with an even stronger background but never gave her the fair chance they are giving Iannarone.

I’m talking about Eileen Brady, of course. I worked on her campaign and got to know her quite well. She and her family made me a friend, and I learned what wonderful people they are. I...

Not gonna happen. Not here. I may be an old white guy, but I’m not a stupid old white guy.

I’m also not a black woman in 21st Century USA. I’m not any kind of black person, much less a female one. The life experiences of Béyonce – the life experiences of black women and women in general – are not something I have shared. Yes, I have gone through shitty things in life, so empathy is no problem. I “get” a lot of this: the anger, the fear, the burning desire to tell the world to fuck off, and so on. Any human who has been stomped on can know these feelings.

But I can never know that lived experience because I am an old white guy living in a different kind of skin, one that gets automatic respect and privilege because, well, I’m a white male. A straight white male. Poor? Yes, but since I am a straight white male, my “poor” is a whole lot better than that of women, of people of color, etc. For example —

I do not stand a one-in-three chance of sexual assault.

I’m probably never going to be stopped by the cops for the crime of being white.

I will be taken at face value where women and people of color will not.

So, me? Talk about Béyonce? Like I said, I’m not stupid. I just wanted to get your attention. I’m not a fan of her music, but that’s about the music. I don’t care for much pop music these days (cf: “old” guy). I don’t care for hip-hop and its many commercial variants. I grew in the 60s; I like melody more than pounding rhythms and thundering bass. I can enjoy these...

Setting up a homeless refuge at the Wapato Jail is a tempting but problematic idea. The key phrase to bear in mind is: “Out of sight, out of mind.”

Check the map; I’m guessing most people aren’t aware just how far from downtown Wapato is: Eleven miles by car. By TriMet, over an hour-and-a-half (the 1:13 trip includes the last 1.3 miles on foot). This is a facility that was put in a distant locale for a simple reason: they wanted to keep the criminals away from the rest of us. When you are locking people up for crimes, easy access to the jail is the opposite of what’s desired.

Access for those experiencing homelessness, on the other hand, is critical: access to employment assistance, SNAP and other benefits, child care, training, medical care, and so on. Those who do not have a place to live should not be punished further by making access to vital services and opportuities difficult. Our goals in dealing with this issue has to be more than just giving people a roof over their heads and a place to escape bad weather. If that was the only goal, Wapato might be great. But a place to spend the night is just the beginning of what the homeless need.

Unless the multitude of agencies and organizations people dealing with homelessness and related issues set up branch offices inside Wapato, we’re looking at a major transportation issue for these folks. For a single person, the hassle and time needed to get back and forth is manageable; for families, it can become a daily trauma. Getting the help needed to move out of homelessness becomes much more difficult from the far end of NoPo....

Find something that fires up the base, and people will get out and vote: Gay Marriage.

It worked. Kerry lost.

He was talking about how Karl “Turd Blossom” Rove used state-level DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) ballot measures to drive voters to the polls in 2004 to bolster flagging support for Bush’s re-election and down-ballot Republicans. With marriage equality now the law of the land, most of us have forgotten just how recent it was that in state after state, voters were denying a basic civil right to millions of law-abiding Americans.

Including us, the fine folks of left coast Oregon.

It was only a temporary fix for the GOP, not to mention the forces of regressive social policy. The Supreme Court was always going to strike down these measures; it was just a matter of time. Most of us were, I think, shocked how quickly that time came. But “equal under the law” always gets protected by the high court, even if it takes years,or decades, too long to get there.

Jj pointed me to the Pew Center’s recent poll on political affiliation, because he sees a link between the DOMA movement (Rove’s grand scheme involved rolling out more of these measures in succeeding elections, but his boss broke the economy and opened the door to the Oval Office to Obama, and next thing you know, it’s gay marriage everywhere) and the GOP’s loss of affilation that is much greater than the Democrats’. In his view, many Americans responded to the DOMA movement by leaving the GOP.

And while I think the Iraq War and Great Recession played a large part in voters turning from the Republican...

Yes, the Democratic nomination is done and dusted. Bernie Sanders’ only path to that nomination is via a time machine. Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee for President. Hell, she’s going to be our next President. The best thing for those who oppose the right wing in this country to do is accept that and move forward.

The worst thing is to tell Sanders supporters, Time to get behind Clinton.

This is not the time for those who’ve given so much to back what they see as a revolution to give up and commit to the candidate who won. This is a time to live through that loss and come to terms with it. And that’s going to take a while. As someone who gave so much to the Dean for America campaign in 2003, I understand.

Sanders supporters think they’re getting a raw deal from the DNC and top Dems; they know nothing about raw deals. The behind-the-scenes efforts to stop Dean in 2003 and 2004 make efforts to block Bernie look like speed bumps on a side street. Joe Trippi’s disastrous Iowa strategy didn’t help, but Dean’s opponents constantly fed the media stories, rumors, and whatever else they could to tear him down.

And when “the scream” happened and it was shown over 800 times in a single week on cable news, not a single Democrat stood up to say, This is wrong. This is unfair. They sat back and gloated while the most successful grassroots campaign of our time was torpedoed by establishment elites in politics and the media. It was brutal, and, when it was over, I was as angry about organized politics as I’m likely to ever be in my life.